


A Posse ad Esse

by natacup82



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Stargate Atlantis Fusion, F/M, Hook-Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 15:55:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12302535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natacup82/pseuds/natacup82
Summary: Maia is done running from the Wraith but sleep and feelings are still a problem.As soon as it gets dark, she gets the urge to run, to pull a gate address out of her memory and put some distance between her and the Wraith she can't quite shake.





	A Posse ad Esse

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Time and Tide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10864779) by [beatperfume](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beatperfume/pseuds/beatperfume). 



> 1\. The working title of this fic was Jace gets negged, so please consider this fact before reading if that concept is unpleasant for you  
> 2\. beatperfume let me play in her SGA AU sandbox and send her 35 emails about it after I made a throw away comment when Jace & Maia banged on the show. She gets to decide if this is canon to her series which is here and AWESOME  
> 3\. Let us assume that on Atlantis every member of the expedition with a uterus is offered an IUD and there is consistent STD testing so folks are a little lax about condoms  
> 4\. Thanks to my betas: abby for fixing my tense issues & neglect of commas and misspamela for reminding me that these two humans have 2 arms each (listen sometimes you just lose track of limbs). Any and all remaining errors are my own

Maia doesn't sleep most nights that they're on Atlantis. If they're out on some unknown planet running for their lives, Maia can sleep at any time, anywhere. 

But it's different in the comfy room they've given her on Atlantis. 

As soon as it gets dark, she gets the urge to run, to pull a gate address out of her memory and put some distance between her and the Wraith she can't quite shake.

It's annoying.

It's another night like that. They'd come in hot, _again_ , and for once Clary is the one laid up in the infirmary after getting bitten by something big and hairy, so they're grounded for a while. 

Maia wanders the halls of Atlantis, nodding at the soldiers on overnight patrol, and makes her way to the training room.

It's usually empty in the middle of the night, the only people from Earth up all night in labs or on duty. But this time, when Maia keys open the room, she hears someone inside. 

“Jace,” Maia says, nodding to him as she enters the room. She won’t turn around just because Jace is there taking up what’s become her private space. 

Jace looks up from where he's doing whatever the hell and says, “Oh, Maia. What are you doing up so late?”

Maia shrugs. “Couldn’t sleep. Figured I’d work out until I’m tired enough to get a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Jace says, hopping to his feet and running a hand through his hair. “Wanna spar?”

Maia tilts her head and thinks about it for a second. She could just work out alone for a bit, but beating up Jace would probably be a quicker way to exhaust herself and work up a sweat. 

“Sure.”

*  
They circle each other on the mat for what feels like minutes sizing each other up. “So what are you up for?” Jace says. 

Maia looks him over. He's loose and light on his feet for this time of night, definitely too awake for her to have any real fun beating him up with those sticks Teyla uses. 

“Hand to hand,” Maia says, stretching, then dropping into a fighting stance. “Unless you’re not up for it.”

Jace smiles. “Show me what you’ve got,” he says, so Maia does, pivoting forward and punching him in the face. 

“Shit,” Jace says, snapping his head back and holding his nose. “I should have seen that coming.”

Maia smiles and says, “Yeah you should know better by now.” She shuffles back and ducks as Jace throws a punch. “Come on, I know you’ve got better than _that_.”

Jace laughs and then strikes out with a jab that Maia blocks, before tripping her while she's distracted. “You mean like that?”

“Yeah,” Maia says, kicking Jace in the shin and rolling so he’ll hit the mat instead of falling on top of her. “You’re almost learning.”

Maia gets her hands under her and starts to push up to stand, before Jace is on her back with an arm around her throat. “I think I’ve learned plenty,” Jace says, breath hot against her ear.

“Not enough,” Maia says. She can’t quite break the hold he has on her neck, but Maia didn’t survive the Wraith and some of the horrible people of the Pegasus galaxy fighting fair. 

She relaxes just a little and leans back into Jace so her butt is flush with his crotch and squirms. Just enough to distract him, to get him to drop the hand holding her arms to her hip to stop her. 

Then Maia thrusts her elbow back hard into Jace’s stomach, rocks back on her heels, and flips Jace onto his back. She doesn’t wait a second to give Jace a chance to strike back, straddling his hips and pinning down his arms. “You’re still not great at protecting your flank.”

“And you still fight dirty,” Jace says, looking up at her with a smirk. 

Maia laughs and grinds down, just a little. “Fighting fair is overrated.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Jace says, grinding up as Maia grinds down again. Her hands slip a little from where she's pinning him down.

Jace takes advantage of the freedom for his hands, immediately sliding them up Maia’s legs to her hips. “Are we,” Jace pauses, and Maia smiles, watching him struggle to control himself. “Are we really doing this?” Jace asks. 

“Do you want to stop?” Maia says, going still above him. “I know your people have weird rules about sex, so I can just go back to my room and get myself off, and we can forget this happened.”

His fingers flex against her hip for a moment, going tight enough that he if didn't stop there would be a bruise, before relaxing. “I don’t want to stop, I just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Maia leans down until they’re pressed together from chest to groin and kisses him, biting his bottom lip before she licks into his mouth, and tries not to smirk when his hand drifts to grab her ass. She pulls away and raises an eyebrow when he tries to follow her. “I think we’re on the same page, don’t you?” And then she kisses him again.

Jace bites her bottom lip and says, “It would probably be better if we weren’t wearing pants.”

“Probably,” Maia says, groaning as Jace palms her ass. She rolls off of him, ignoring the quick noise of complaint he makes, and wiggles out of her sweats. Jace only takes a moment to get with the program, toeing out of his sneakers before pulling off his pants. 

Maia's just hooked her thumbs under the sides of her panties to pull them off when Jace is up and leaning over her. “I can help with that,” Jace says, sliding a hand up her leg. 

“Oh yeah?” Maia asks, lifting her hips up and letting him pull her panties off. “You planning on helping with anything else?”

“Maybe,” Jace says, using his knees to spread her legs as he settles on top of her. 

He kisses her then, hot and dirty enough for Maia to slide a hand into his hair and pull. Maia shifts her hips, letting his erection slide against her folds as she wraps a leg around his waist. 

Maia breaks the kiss to take a breath, moaning when Jace’s mouth finds her neck. She wraps her other leg around his waist and rolls them until she's back on top. 

“Sorry,” Maia says, not sorry at all. “You were taking way too long.”

Jace laughs as his back hits the floor and says, “I don’t mind. I like a woman who takes charge.”

“Remember that the next time we’re off world,” Maia says, savoring the feel of skin on skin. It’s been longer than she can remember since she’s been this close to anyone, since she’s felt this turned on. 

He grips her hips and groans as Maia finally sinks down on him. Maia hasn’t had sex in longer than she would ever want to admit, and she can’t help closing her eyes and groaning at the stretch. She sits there, not moving, for a minute, hands braced on Jace’s chest as his thumb rubs soothing little circles on her hip, and then Maia starts to move. 

Maia starts slow, rolling her hips a little and gasping when Jace starts thrusting up to meet her, until they build up a rhythm. He thrusts, and she rolls, and the little spark inside of her starts building, slowly at first, and then faster than she’d like. She opens her eyes and looks at Jace, face pinched and hands starting to grip her hips harder, and knows that he isn’t going to last long.

“Please tell me you’re close,” Jace says, voice rough. He's wide eyed and looking at Maia, biting his lip as his thrusts get a little harder, deeper. 

Maia moans and leans forward, changing the angle to get more friction on her clit, and says, “Close enough,” and kisses him. She slips a hand between them to work her clit, finishing herself off as Jace comes with a grunt. Maia collapses on his chest, breathing hard and suddenly more tired than she’s been in weeks. 

*

After she catches her breath from coming harder than she can remember in years, Maia sits up, gets dressed, and heads back to her room without saying a word. It's the best night of sleep she’s had in weeks.

They don’t talk about it. At least, Maia doesn’t talk about it. They’re still grounded, and Jace spends days trying to corner her to talk, but Maia wasn’t big on that before she was a Runner, and she has no plans to change now that she’s joined the people on Atlantis fighting the Wraith. 

It’s a few weeks before they’re nearly cleared for off world missions, and Maia gets restless again. She doesn’t plan to seek Jace out, but she spends another late night wandering Atlantis, and ending up in that same training room and finding the same person there again, alone. It isn’t exactly a problem but she doesn’t want to make a habit of it. 

“Hey,” Maia says, pausing before she enters the room. Jace had stopped trying to talk to her alone, but she wasn’t new enough to believe he’d fully quit. 

He looks up and nods at her before going back to the form he's practicing. Maia shrugs and made her way over to the bike thing the Atlantis folks had brought over from Earth. It isn’t the hardest workout, but sometimes it hits the right mix of tiring and boring to get her a few hours of sleep. 

She’s only been at it for fifteen minutes or so before Jace starts talking. “So does this mean you’re done avoiding me?” he says, dropping out of the last form and walking to go hang up his banto sticks. 

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” Maia says. Jace makes a face, that really stupid one he makes when he's annoyed and thinks he's right. Maia hates that face; usually it gets flashed minutes before someone starts trying to kill them. 

“It seemed like you were trying to tell me your feelings. I hate feelings, so I shut it down before you could start,” Maia said with a shrug. 

Jace opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying to say something, and Maia resists the temptation to laugh at him. They're scheduled to go off world in two days, there's nothing to gain by pissing him off now. “I was just trying to make sure we were still good. I wasn’t. I just wanted to check in, we’re teammates.”

“We are, and it was just sex,” Maia says, rolling her eyes. She climbs down off the bike; she doesn’t see herself getting much more time on it in peace that night. “It wasn’t good enough or bad enough to cause any problems. Promise.”

Jace narrows his eyes and steps closer to her. “I’m great in bed.”

Maia shrugs. He was a good enough kisser and okay with his hands, but she vaguely remembers having better. “You’re alright.”

“I’m way better than alright,” Jace says with a smirk. “Ask Kaelie.”

Maia laughs. “Kaelie has not slept with a man the entire time I’ve been on Atlantis.” Maia steps closer to him and slaps her hands on his shoulders. “It’s okay to not be the best, keep practicing and you’ll get there eventually.”

“I don’t need to practice,” Jace says, voice going low. “I’ve never had any complaints.”

“Because your people are really prone to talking about sex? It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Jace makes several faces, like he’s going through several feelings at once and doesn’t know which one to stop at. “I’m not ashamed because I’m great in bed!”

Maia shrugs. “It’s good that you believe that and if you keep believing and practicing I’m sure you’ll get better.” She pats his cheek and says, “I believe in you.”

“Why, are you offering?” Jace says, stepping even closer to Maia, hands not quite touching her sides. 

“You going to do something better with your mouth this time?” Maia says, sliding her hands around his neck and closing the tiny gap between their bodies. 

“I could,” Jace says, smirking again. 

And he does. Maia goes to bed loose and surprisingly sleeps better than she had in days. 

*  
They're cleared to go back off world the next day and stepping through the stargate less than a day later. And it’s fine. Jace seems to have learned to stop trying to talk to Maia about his stupid feelings, and at least this time no one starts shooting at them as soon as they step out into a field on P3X-913.

It’s not a planet Maia’s familiar with, so she drops back to keep pace with Luke and lets Jace and Clary take point. 

“You know anything about this planet?” Maia asks, scanning the trees around them. “How likely are we to get shot at or kidnapped today?”

Luke laughs. “Very unlikely. Other teams have been to this planet plenty of times. They’ll probably just try to get us drunk.”

“I could be into that,” Maia says, thinking about it. “It’s definitely better than laying down cover fire while we run for our lives.”

“Guys,” Jace yells over his shoulder. He inclines his head toward the villager talking to Clary, so Maia and Luke catch up and join them in the little village square.

They step up in time to catch the tail end of an explanation about some sort of planting festival. Jace and Clary seem to be taking everything the guy (Maia hadn’t caught his name) says at face value, but it sounds like an invite to an orgy to Maia. 

Harvest festivals were usually a chance to get drunk and celebrate avoiding getting culled for long enough to actually harvest the crops that were planted. Those Maia had been allowed to attend off world when she was young and naive enough to think that her home planet would always be there, anyway. 

Planting festivals were another thing. The planets that had them, and there were plenty, would invite their off world trading partners to get drunk and introduce some new blood into the community without anyone needing to stay on planet or end up married. It worked, but it seemed a little more free than the folks from Earth were about sex. 

Maia waits until the guy walks back toward one of the houses in the village square, and then raises an eyebrow at Jace. “You know that this planting festival is probably a drunken orgy, right?”

“What?” Clary blurted, both eyebrows climbing toward the middle of her forehead. “Jornan said it was a celebration of their success in planting the next season’s crops.”

Maia makes a face. “Yeah, it’s also a chance to try to get some new blood in next season's babies,” she says. “Has no one ever told any of you about this? How many planting festivals have Atlantis teams been to?”

“None,” Jace says, cutting in before Clary could start what Maia was sure would be a bunch of nonsense about trusting their hosts. “Mostly we’ve been invited to harvest festivals. This invite is supposed to be a step up for our diplomacy.”

“And that orgy thing could be specific to only certain planets,” Luke added. 

Clary nods and points at Luke. “Great point, Luke! Maia, you could be worrying for nothing, we have no idea if this planet does that whole orgy thing.”

“They’re right, and this is too big of an opportunity for Atlantis,” Jace adds. “Just keep your eyes open, and just because you accept a drink doesn’t mean you have to drink it.”

Maia shrugs. “Okay, but I’m not having sex with any of these people. I’m just putting that out there.”

Jace laughs. “That’s fair. Let’s go.”

*  
It’s an orgy. Maia finds a spot out of the way and leans against a tree, laughing at the mess that is her team. They were all too polite to turn down the drinks pushed on them by the villagers, and all of them except Maia drank at least a little bit. 

Maia looks across the bonfire and sees Clary giggling and tipping backwards, Luke making out with some redheaded villager, and Jace standing to the side staring. He catches her eye for a second, and Maia raises an eyebrow and says, “Told you so,” even though she's sure he can’t read her lips.

Jace shakes his head and starts heading over to Maia, and she nods in approval. It isn’t a bad spot to keep an eye on things. He looks mostly sober, so Maia assumes he didn’t drink the special punch. She keeps that assumption up until the point when he reaches her, steps way too close, and hugs her. 

Maia freezes for a second, then wraps her arms around her obviously-drunk team leader. “Are you okay?” she says, a little bit of a laugh in her voice. 

“I missed you,” Jace mumbles, breath warm where he’s buried his face in her neck. 

Maia snorts and says, “Sure you did.” She rubs circles on his back and tries to remember the last time she’d had to comfort a clingy drunk; it feels like something from some other life. “How many of those drinks did you have?”

“One,” Jace says as he started to trail kisses up Maia’s neck. 

“Jace,” Maia says, a warning in her voice.

“Maybe two and a half,” Jace says. He slides a hand up under Maia’s tac vest, and Maia tries not to gasp as it drags roughly across her stomach.

“This is a really bad idea,” Maia says, as she pulls Jace closer and leans her head back so he has easier access to her neck. She can see Luke and Clary across the clearing on the other side of the bonfire. Luke looks like he's well on his way to providing this planet with a new family line in the new season, but Clary, at least, was behaving herself, mainly by passing out and being left alone. 

Jace groans and grinds his hips into Maia’s, and mumbles, “I really want to taste you”.

Maia laughs and then groans as Jace unbuttoned her pants and worked his hand into her panties. “That’s not happening out here,” Maia says, shifting her hips to give him a little better access. “Just because I’m doing this with you doesn’t mean I’m willing to really be in this orgy.”

“Ugh, fine,” Jace says, before he tips Maia’s head back and kisses her. Maia lets him, laughing a little as he pushes a little closer and the hand on her starts moving a little rougher. She slips a hand into his pants and starts stroking him the way he liked the last time they hooked up. 

Maia shifts her hips again and tries to give Jace a better angle as she keeps stroking. She’s just starting to build a spark when she feels him go stiff against her and sigh. “Are you serious?” Maia says, making a face as she pulls her hand out of his pants and wipes it on Jace’s tac vest.

Jace sniffs, but doesn’t say anything. “Are you crying?” Maia asks, voice creeping a little high at the absurdity of this whole thing. “Okay, we’re done. I’m in charge now, you’re all going to bed.”

And then Maia removes his hand from her pants, frowning at her own missed orgasm, and pushes Jace away, toward the bonfire and the rest of the team. 

She hates planting festivals.

*  
The next morning, they make a quiet trek back to the Stargate. Jace is somehow more gruff than usual, and Clary refuses to make eye contact with any of them. 

Maia shrugs; she’d warned them the entire planting festival thing was an orgy, and she isn’t going to feel bad about any of the stupid things that happened. At least none of them got shot on this mission.

They make it through the Stargate with no problems, and Maia doesn’t catch exactly what Jace says to Sheppard, but they're all hustled to the infirmary for more than the usual round of post-mission testing. They’re lined up to get their blood drawn before the nurses start directing them to beds to start their exams. 

Maia is put on a bed with a curtain pulled around it, which isn’t really private, but the Earth people seemed to like the illusion. They’d assigned her Dr. Keller for the post-mission physical. She still isn’t sure which of the doctors is less annoying, but she's sure eventually one of them will win out.

“Good morning, Ms. Roberts,” Dr. Keller says as she steps around the curtain. “Looks like your team had an interesting night.”

“It’s Maia, I’m sure I’ve told you all,” Maia says. “And it was just a typical planting festival orgy, nothing special,” she adds with a shrug, ignoring the sound of someone coughing from the other side of the curtain. 

Dr. Keller makes a face, and Maia tries not to laugh as she braces herself for whatever ridiculous questions she's sure are coming. 

“Right!” Dr. Keller says, voice going a little high. “So we’ve taken a blood sample as usual, and if any of the drink the rest of the team is talking about is there, we’ll be able to figure out the composition.”

Maia snorts. “You’re not going to find any of it in my system, I didn’t drink it.”

“Oh,” Dr. Keller says. “I think Lt. Fray mentioned that she’d seen you and um-” She pauses and blushes. Maia really wants to go to Earth and figure out why these people are so weird about sex. “She said it looked like you had maybe had some sort of sexual contact but she couldn’t be sure because her vision went blurry.”

“Right,” Maia says. “I made out with someone, and then I collected my team and put them to bed before any of them got far enough to end up with a baby in nine months.”

Dr. Keller laughs nervously and then says, “So no unprotected sex during the um...”

“Orgy?” Maia says, trying not to smile. “That’s correct. As far as I know, none of the team successfully had sex with any villagers or with each other during the orgy. But we managed to not be rude about it, so it’s fine.”

Dr. Keller’s eyes widen. “Is it normally considered rude to not, um, engage during these festivals?”

Maia nods. “Pretty much. The only people who can get out of it are married people. When we were invited by our trading partners, we always sent couples; it’s less of a hassle, and it was considered a little bit of a vacation. Go off world, get drunk, have sex in a field. It’s fun.”

There was a laugh from the other side of the curtain that absolutely sounded like Luke, and Maia smiles. “Most of the farming planets in Pegasus have something similar, it’s not a big deal. I know your planet is different about sex.”

“Right, yes. We don’t really. That is, we’re not big on public. Anyway,” Dr. Keller says, stammering and looking down at her tablet as it pings. “Everything seems in order, and your blood tests have come back negative, so you’re free to go.”

“Awesome,” Maia says, hopping down off the bed. “Thanks, Dr. K.”

*  
Maia makes it back to her room in relatively short time; only two Marines stop her to make fun of her team for being caught in an orgy, so she counts it as a win. She's sure they’ll be loud and rowdy about it over dinner in a few hours. 

She doesn't have any real responsibilities for the next few hours, beyond writing up a scarily honest mission report. Usually she’d follow the Atlantis unwritten rule of editing things that might be too weird for their Earth military, but on this, they deserve to be uncomfortable with the truth. Maybe it'll stop them from thinking an orgy is a good diplomatic opportunity. 

Maia changes out of the Atlantis-issue clothes and slips on a skirt she got from the Athosians and a tank top that’s been with her longer than she can remember, then settles down to write a report. Maia types it up, and then downloads a book off the shared library to her tablet and spends the next hour reading about marine life on Earth. It’s what she’d wanted to study before. Before she’d been conscripted into the fight against the Wraith, before her planet was nothing more than a memory, before a lot of things. 

Now it’s comforting to know that somewhere, in another galaxy, there were people her age who’d had the chance to study everything in the sea without needing to fight to avoid being culled. 

She’s just settled into a chapter on the octopus, something she is positive they don’t have in Pegasus, when her door chimes. Maia marks the page on her tablet, gets up, stretches, and goes to get the door. 

“Jace,” Maia says as the door slides open. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jace says, shoving a hand in his pocket. “Can I come in?”

Maia frowns. “Uh, sure. Come on in,” she says, backing up and stepping to the side to let Jace in. Maia waves a hand to shut the door, then turns around to find Jace standing in the middle of her room looking around. “So,” Maia says, stepping around Jace to sit on the edge of her bed. “What’s up?”

“Right,” Jace says, roughly running a hand through his hair. “I wanted to apologize for last night.”

Maia raises an eyebrow. “For what?” 

“For last night. You know, “ Jace says, making a vague hand gesture and dropping down next to Maia on her bed.

“You mean when you came in 30 seconds and then _cried_ on me?”

Jace closes his eyes and exhales, a look Maia can’t read crossing his face. “Yes, that.”

Maia shrugs. “It’s fine. You were very drunk, so I didn’t plan to hold it against you.”

“Still.” Jace says with a shrug, his shoulder brushing Maia’s. He pats her knee and then leaves his hand there, thumb brushing a distracting little line on her thigh. “You didn’t get to come, it’s not fair.”

“I’m not the first woman to not get off during sex, Jace,” Maia says, bumping Jace’s shoulder with her own. “Unless you’re planning on doing something about it, it’s fine. My fingers work just as well as yours.”

“That sounds like a challenge,” Jace says. He brushes his fingers up higher on Maia’s inner thigh and then kisses her. Maia lets him, hands going up to his shoulders as she lets him push her down onto her back. 

Jace runs his fingers along the edge of Maia’s panties, close but not close enough to making himself useful when he asks, “Can I?” 

“Please,” Maia says, voice strained, as she spreads her legs and lets Jace slide her underwear off. “Are we taking off the skirt?” she asks, back arching as Jace’s mouth drops to her neck. Jace slides a hand up under her shirt, thumb stroking over her nipple as he kisses his way back up to her mouth. 

Jace kisses her again and says, “Nah, leave it on.”

“You are so weird,” Maia says, laughing. And then she groans as Jace pushes up her shirt and starts kissing her chest. He drags his tongue over her nipple and Maia arches her back again, trying to get her breast in his mouth. She’d be embarrassed by how much she wanted it if she had any shame left. 

Jace finally takes pity on her and sucks, as his hand started creeping its way back up her thigh. Maia lets her legs spread open and grabs Jace’s hand up until his finger was brushing her folds. “Stop teasing already,” Maia says, moaning as Jace bites lightly at the side of her breast. 

“God, you’re bossy,” Jace whispers, drawing Maia’s nipple back into his mouth as his thumb finds her clit and his other fingers start exploring her folds. He spends a few moments exploring, thumb rubbing as Maia’s hand grips his shoulder, before he slips a finger inside of her. Maia spreads her legs a little farther, trying to get Jace to get deeper, to give her a little bit more relief. 

Maia doesn’t notice when Jace stops sucking her nipple, but he starts kissing down her stomach, flipping her skirt up and slowly sliding down until he's kneeling on the floor between her legs. Maia lifts her head up and looks down in time to see him lower his head as she feels the first lick. 

Maia groans and leans back, sliding her fingers into Jace’s hair, not quite holding him in place. He keeps licking, tongue exploring her folds, stopping to flick against her clit before sucking it lighting and going back to lick again. He keeps going in a cycle, licking, sucking then flicking his tongue against her clit as Maia tries and fails to keep her hips from bucking up to chase more.

Maia was already climbing toward her orgasm when Jace adds a second finger and starts fucking her with his fingers in time with the rhythm of his tongue. Her hands gripped his hair harder, hard enough that Maia was sure she’d pull out some of his hair when her orgasm hit her, rolling through her body as she moans, voice going high. He kept licking her through it but he stopped his fingers, just letting them sit inside of her while she tried to come down.

Maia lay there breathing hard as Jace pulls his fingers out, kisses her thigh and climbs back up the bed to lay beside her. 

“So?” Jace asks, that smug note back in his voice. “Definitely better than last time right?”

Maia laughed. “You didn’t cry so it’s definitely a step up,” she says still mostly out of breath. 

“I’d be insulted but you can’t even breathe yet so I’m going to take the compliment you refuse to give,” Jace says, laughing and pulling Maia to him so her back was flush against his chest. 

“What are you doing?” Maia says, relaxing into his arms. It felt good to not be alone but she was never going to say that out loud where anyone could hear it and use it against her. 

Jace kissed the back of her neck and then somehow managed to pull her a little closer tucking his knees behind hers. “We’re cuddling,” Jace says. “It’s an earth tradition.”

Maia snorts and says, “I guess we can’t break tradition.” And then she settles in and fell asleep.  
*  
Maia wakes up hours past the time she was supposed to meet up with her marine buddies for dinner overheated with an arm curled around her waist. She’s disoriented for a maybe half a minute before she remembers that afternoon and Jace and smiles before she can think to get her face under control. 

It’s another minute before she realizes that the reason she’d woken up at all is the door chime. Maia moves Jace’s arm, ignores the grumbling and slips out of bed grabbing her panties and a t-shirt off the floor before going to the door. 

She doesn’t check the time but her internal clock has been pretty well honed from years as a runner so she knew it was late for Atlantis. But her radio was silent and the PA hadn’t warned them of anything so she assumed it wasn’t an emergency. 

Maia palmed the sensor for the door and frowns, surprised. “Oh, hi,” Maia says still frowning at Isabelle Lightwood standing at her door. Maia is pretty sure they have never actually said two words to each other. 

“Hey,” Isabelle says, smiling. “Sorry, I know this is probably the middle of the night for normal people but most of the science team is just hitting their stride.”

“Right,” Maia says, not mentioning that 3 days out of the week she’s also just hitting her stride at this time of day. “Did you need something? I’m not usually high on the science team priority list.”

Isabelle smiles again. “That’s probably because they haven’t cleared any of the marine biologists to come to Atlantis yet. Give it a couple of months and you’ll have a parade of geeks picking your brain about marine life in Pegasus.”

“How do you?” Maia started, surprised that anybody would know that about her past. 

Isabelle laughs, “Sorry, Jace mentioned that you used to study before that last wraith attack.”

“Yeah, I did. For a little while when I wasn’t in training,” Maia says, leaning against the doorway. “I didn’t know Earth was sending anyone over to study the oceans here.”

“Well, once we knew there were giant whales I think it became more of a priority,” Isabelle says with a shrug. “I assume there’s more down there than just whales.”

“There are, and it varies wildly by planet and water source,” Maia says with a smile. “But I’m guessing you didn’t come here to talk about that.”

Isabelle frowned. “I didn’t, sorry. I was actually looking for Jace. Alec said he had planned to come talk to you earlier and he’s not in his room so,” she shrugs. “I figured I’d check here and then try the training rooms next.”

“It’s a good strategy,” Maia says, nodding. “But he’s here, hang on a minute,” Maia said before palming the door closed.

Maia walks back over to the bed and slaps Jace on the ass, hard. “Time to get up.”

“God, why are you always like this?” Jace asks, not even attempting to get up.

“Because the last time I was nice about waking you up, we took so long that I almost got shot,” Maia says, tossing a shirt onto Jace’s back. “Your sister is looking for you.”

Jace groaned. “And I will find her tomorrow at breakfast, come back to bed,” Jace says, reaching out faster than Maia thought he could move and tugging her arm. Maia avoids being pulled back into bed, just barely. 

“Let me correct that. Your sister is at my door, right now so you’re getting up.”

Jace lifted his head off the pillow. “Izzy is here?”

“Yup, get up.”

“Fine,” Jace says, sitting up and pulling on his boxers. He squints at Maia for a second before smirking. “That’s my shirt.”

“It’s mine now,” Maia says, tossing him one of the many too big base issue shirts she had in her drawers. “Go deal with whatever family issue you’re having, I’m going back to bed,” Maia says, laying back on her now blissfully empty bed. Maia refused to think too hard about how nice it had been to not wake up alone on Atlantis for a change. 

“Later,” Jace says, pulling on the shirt. He leans over to kiss her, there and gone so fast it could have been her imagination before he was across the room and out of the door. 

*  
Maia skips the unofficial breakfast with the team to take a run and join her favorite group of marines for an early lunch instead. She loads up a tray and headed over to join the guys, already loud and rowdy even though it was still mid-morning Atlantis time. 

“Boys,” Maia says with a nod as she sits down across from Sgt Stackhouse. “So what are we laughing at this morning? If it’s my team again at least leave me out of it.”

“Did you really end up at an orgy?” Corp Scott asks leaning forward across the table. 

Stackhouse punches him on the arm and Maia laughs. “You don’t need to answer that, we’re still training the newbies on what you can and cannot talk about here.”

“It’s alright, I don’t mind ridiculous questions,” Maia says. She looked at the corporal and adds, “But I’d avoid saying any of those words together to any other member of my team.”

Corp Scott frowned and asks, “Why? It’s bound to make the rounds in the rumor mill.” He sat back and looked around the table, “Right? If something weird happens there’s no way to really hush that up so why be cute about it.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your people are weird about sex,” Maia says, raising an eyebrow at Scott. “Most of the missions with weird stuff that become rumors are usually some sex thing that your people are too embarrassed to ask about.”

“Right,” Scott said, starting to go a little red around his neck. 

Stackhouse cleared his throat and says, “So that means that there was an um. You know,” before looking down at his food and shoveling a forkful of eggs into his mouth. 

Maia rolled her eyes. Even the marines from Earth were way too precious about sex. “Yes, there was an orgy. No, my team did not participate.”

“Why not?” Sgt Hastings blurted out before his eyes widened and he realized he’d said it out loud. 

“Because luckily the home brew on that planet was way too strong for your Earth bodies. They all got super drunk super quickly. It was pretty boring,” Maia says. She left out the rest of it because they absolutely did not need to know. 

Corporal Scott nodded and says, “Cool,” then he looked at Maia again with a very intent face. Maia would not have minded if she hadn’t learned quickly that marine thirst for good gossip was true across galaxies. 

“So what’s the deal with you and Captain Wayland?” Corporal Scott asks, trying to put on an innocent face. “He really doesn’t seem like the type of guy you’d date.”

Maia glares at him and says, “There is no deal with me and the captain. We’re not dating.”

Hastings snorted but averted his eyes back to his lunch when Maia turned to glare at him. 

“I mean it,” Maia says. “Why would you even think there’s a thing?”

“Dude,” Sgt Stackhouse says. “I have worked overnight base security.”

“So?” Maia asks. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Stackhouse stared at her. “I’ve worked overnight base security near the training rooms late at night,” Stackhouse says, pointedly widening his eyes.

“Oh god,” Maia says, horror creeping into her voice. 

“Yup,” Stackhouse says. 

“And you didn’t say anything?”

“Sorry,” Stackhouse says, not sounding sorry at all. “There is no non embarrassing way to bring it up.”

“Uhh,” Scott says. “Did I miss something?”

“Nope,” Maia and Stackhouse said at once. “This is for the grownups, don’t worry about it,” Maia says, throwing a look at Stackhouse. “You won’t have any other problems with your overnight shift.”

“Glad to hear it or not hear it,” Stackhouse says, smirking while Hasting choked on his coffee. 

Scott looked between Stackhouse and Maia and then over to Hastings. “No seriously guys, what is going on?” He says, sounding confused. 

“Don’t worry about it kid,” Maia says sighing and swearing to never have sex in a public room on base again.

*  
Maia didn’t tell Jace that at least two of the marines had heard them having sex, because all of the people from Earth were weird about sex and somehow the military ones were much worse than the scientists. 

But she did make sure that they mainly hooked up in beds from there on. And it was good, no more weird bruises from fucking on a floor and she didn’t have to get dressed in a hurry to avoid any of the other insomniacs on base. 

They don’t talk about it. Jace keeps showing up at Maia’s quarters and Maia keeps not kicking him out. It wasn’t bad but Maia couldn’t remember the last time she willingly shared a bed with anyone for more than a night. 

It’s more than a month after Jace started sleeping over several nights a week when they’re finally cleared for something other than a boring mission to a known planet. Maia doesn’t expect company, hasn’t seen Jace on a night before an offworld mission at any point in their _thing_ so she settles in with a book from the base network and tries to relax since she was sure they weren’t going to get shot at off world. 

She wakes up a few hours later to the sound of her door sliding open. Maia stays still, letting years of instincts honed from running take over to assess the threat. Maia keeps her breathing even and slowly reached under her pillow for her blaster when she hears a grunt then.

“Ow, shit,” Jace says, clearly trying and failing to stay quiet. 

“Jace,” Maia says, sitting up and turning on the lamp that seemed to be standard over all of the beds in the segment of living quarters where she was assigned. “What are you doing?”

Jace winced at the sudden light and then finished kicking off his boots. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s fine,” Maia says, still confused. “I wasn’t expecting you to come over tonight. We’re still scheduled to go off world tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, we’re cleared to head out at 0800,” Jace says, pulling his shirt off. “I haven’t seen you all week and I couldn’t sleep so.” He paused with midway through taking off his pants. “Do you mind if I sleep here tonight?”

Maia shrugs. “Jace, you know I don’t care. Just save the striptease for the next time we’re dealing with someone weird offworld and hurry up.”

“So welcoming.”

Maia rolled her eyes. “We have to be geared up and ready to go in less than six hours. Now is not the time for to get sensitive because I didn’t send you an invitation to sleep over.”

Jace snorted and climbs into the bed. “I’m not looking for an invitation but you could pretend that you’re not doing me a favor letting me sleep here.”

“I never said I was. You’re not completely terrible,” Maia says, cutting off the light and laying back down. 

Jace laughs, his breath warm against the back of Maia’s neck. He slips an arm around her waist and presses a kiss behind her ear. “Sweet talker. You keep being so nice and I’m going to start blushing.”

“Oh shut up and go to sleep,” Maia says, trying not to laugh and encourage him. 

“Yes ma’am.”

*  
They stepped out of the stargate into pouring rain on P3X-193. It wasn’t a planet that Maia could remember from her years running, but there were so many of them that they blurred together in her memories. 

“Okay,” Jace says as they approached the tree line a few feet away from the stargate. “Garroway, you take our six. Roberts you take point with me. Let’s move out.”

“What about me?” Clary asks, half glaring at Jace. 

Maia rolled her eyes. This happened every time they went off world, because for some reason Fray could not fathom that they’d want to avoid leaving her somewhere to attract trouble. Maia knew she didn’t go looking for trouble, mostly but she could attract it as well as most of the science team. They had to start taking precautions if they didn’t want to get shot. 

“You’re taking up the middle. We’re going into dense woods with no clear instruction on how far in we have to trek before we hit the village,” Jace says in that tone he got when he thought he knew best and didn’t really appreciate being questioned. Maia wasn’t a fan of it even when she agreed with him.

Clary made a face as Jace turned back toward the woods and mumbled, “Yes, sir.” 

“Are we expecting trouble?” Maia asks, checking her blaster just in case. 

Jace snorted. “When aren’t we expecting trouble?”

“First time for everything,” Luke says, with a shrug. He looked up at the sky, squinting. “This rain isn’t letting up and standing in it is just making it worse.”

“Then let’s keep moving,” Jace says, hands resting on top of the P-90 strapped to his chest. “The sooner we make contact the sooner we can get the hell out of here.”

They started walking again, spreading out a bit as they moved into the woods. Maia could barely hear Fray and Luke as they moved farther into the dense woods but as long as she could hear something of them she wouldn’t slow her pace. 

“So,” Jace started, not breaking stride or stopping his scan of the woods. “I meant to talk to you about something this morning. But we were running late so,” Jace says, shrugging. 

“Okay,” Maia says. “We’ve got time now apparently, so start talking.”

“Me, Alec and Izzy do family dinners sometimes when we’re all on base and not on duty.”

“Okay,” Maia says, confused. “So there’s a night when you’re not going to come over? It’s fine I don’t expect you to drop your plans for me.”

Jace looked at her and made a face. “No, what I mean is that you should come to our next dinner. You know, to get to know Alec and Izzy.”

“I’ve met Alec and Izzy, multiple times. You were there,” Maia says. She was trying very hard not to look at Jace like he’d lost his mind. “I’m not crashing your family dinner.”

Jace snorts. “It’s not crashing, you’re invited.”

“Still.”

“It’s different. We weren’t doing whatever the hell it is we’re doing when you met them before.”

Maia sighs. “Just because people know we’re sleeping together doesn’t mean we have to get weird about it. You don’t need to introduce me to people I already know.”

“I’m not trying to introduce you to anybody. They want to get to know you. I want them to get to know you,” Jace says, starting to sound frustrated. 

“Look,” Maia says, trying not to raise her voice. “I get that this is important to you but I don’t see the point in making a big production of things.” She paused, making sure she could still hear Luke and Clary behind them. “We all live and work on the same base, I’d have to try really hard not to get to know people that I see every day.”

Jace snorted again. “You know that’s not the same thing. I don’t know why you have to be so difficult about-” Maia cut him off. “Wait.”

“Wait what, this is important-” 

“Shut up a minute,” Maia says, stopping to listen. “Do you hear that?” 

Jace stopped, hands tightening on the gun across chest. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. Sometimes wrong,” Maia says. 

And then the trees to their left exploded. 

*  
Maia groaned as she sat up from where she was thrown backwards into a tree. Her ears keep ringing for a minute but her vision is clear and what she sees is not good. 

Most of the forest behind them, the direct path to the stargate is on fire and there are figures running through the smoke. 

Maia did a quick assessment of herself, nothing broken at least, before she starts trying to assess the threat and find Jace and the rest of the team. She pulls out her blaster and starts doing a scan of the area around her before moving forward. 

She doesn’t panic when she finds the first body, stopping to turn the woman over and breathing an uncomfortable sigh of relief when it isn’t Lt. Fray. The next two bodies were more locals, one stabbed and another burned but Maia couldn’t tell how many people had died in the woods with the thickness of the smoke. It wasn’t until she got to the fourth body that Maia found someone alive and coughing. 

Maia squinted into the smoke, trying to clear it so she could see the person coughing and asks, “Are you alright?” She had her blaster raised and ready just in case. 

“Maia?” Jace asks, voice rough from coughing. 

“Jace?” Maia asks, dropping down to where Jace was propped against a tree. “Are you okay?”

Jace coughed again, “I’m fine. What are you still doing here? I ordered everyone to fall back to the stargate.”

“I just came to,” Maia says, vision clearing as the smoke dissipated a bit. “And I’m pretty sure I lost my radio in the blast.” She did a vision inspection and could tell immediately that his _‘I’m fine’_ was a load of shit. “Do we have any idea what happened? I found multiple bodies on my way to you and the woods are burning.”

Jace snorts then started coughing again, a noise that sounded worse with each minute that passed. “Luke and Clary reported back as they got closer to the gate. We walked into the middle of a freaking civil war.”

“These people are at war with each other?” Maia asks, horrified. “While the wraith are awake? Are they really that stupid?” 

“Apparently,” Jace says, wincing as he tried to sit up straighter against the tree. “You need to make your way to the stargate before they blow something else up.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Maia says, standing up and reaching a hand out to help Jace up. “We’ll need to try to find a way around the fire.”

“You can go on ahead,” Jace says, breath shallow. “I’ll catch up in a bit but first priority is to make sure the team is out of the line of fire.”

Maia snorts. “I’m not leaving you here. We go together or we can both sit here and hope reinforcements get to us before the fire or the locals. You choose.”

“That’s not a choice,” Jace says. “And I wasn’t asking, that was an order. You need to fall back to the stargate.”

“We both know I only follow your orders when they aren’t stupid,” Maia says, glaring down at him. “This order is stupid. Get up, we’re going.”

Jace sighs. “I can’t.”

“This isn’t a debate Jace, I’m not leaving you here.”

“Maia,” Jace says, he sounds annoyed but Maia was used to that so it didn’t bother her. 

“Jace.” 

“My knee is twisted and I’m pretty sure my ribs are at least bruised. I can’t run to the stargate,” Jace says, glaring. “You need to get out of here.”

Maia sighs and then crouched down so they were eye level. “I’m not leaving you here. We’ll brace your leg and go slow but we’re going. I’m not compromising on this.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re annoying?” Jace says, with a smile. 

Maia laughs, “Yeah you almost every day since we’ve met.”

*  
Maia used her blaster to shoot down a branch and quickly stripped it make a brace for Jace’s leg. 

“Okay, this should be good enough to get us to the stargate,” Maia says, wrapping duck tape around the stick and Jace’s leg. “Any luck with the radio?”

“No,” Jace says. He gritted his teeth as Maia finished taping off his leg. “Either they made it through the gate or this planet has better technology than we thought.”

Maia snorts. “I’m going with option one until I see some evidence. There are no bullet or blaster wounds on any of the bodies in the woods. They all look like they were running injured or got caught closer to the blast.”

“How many bodies did you find?” Jace asks, checking the tape. 

“Enough.” Maia says, standing up. “Okay, time to go,” she says, reaching out to help Jace stand up. It took them a minute to get situated, Jace leaning on Maia left side so she had easy access to her blaster. “We’ll take it slow,” Maia says, squaring her shoulders for the walk.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Jace says, and then they set out. 

They had to walk to the right of the path, parallel to the last of the flames trying to find a section of woods that was untouched by the fires. As they walked they found more bodies and heard more sounds of battle in the distance but they didn’t stop or try to investigate, they kept up their slow, steady trek toward the stargate.

They were an hour into their walk, and an hour before the next scheduled check when they reached the edge the forest and the end of the flames. 

“We should stop here for a few minutes and have a rest,” Maia says, shifting her grip on Jace. He was breathing hard and sweating but Maia knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t complain as long as they were moving forward.

Jace braced himself against one of the many boulders they’d stumped upon as they reached the end of the fire and said, “I’m fine. We can keep going for a few more hours and see what kind of progress we make.”

Maia rolls her eyes. Jace’s shirt was soaked through with sweat and his breathing was labored, she knew well there was no way he’d make it a few more hours without more frequent breaks. “No,” Maia says, glaring at him. “You’re not going to push that hard just to pass out or die before we make it to the gate.”

“It’s not that bad,” Jace says, as his breathing got a little more under control. 

“It could get that bad,” Maia says, leaning against the boulder next to him. “Trust me, every once in awhile I’d come across another runner. I could always tell which ones were getting near the end, they’d push themselves past the point of exhaustion and then I’d never see them again.”

Jace sighs. “I’m not going to do anything like that. I promise.”

“Good, because if you did I’d kick your ass from here to Atlantis,” Maia says, bumping Jace’s arm with her shoulder. 

“And I’d enjoy every minute of it,” Jace says, laughing. His breathing was mostly normal and he’d seemed to stop sweating. 

“Of course you would,” Maia says, with a laugh. “Okay, rest time is over let's move out.”

*  
They’d been walking for twenty minutes when Jace developed the cough. At first Maia doesn’t worry about it, they’d inhaled enough smoke to irritate their throats for month. 

They kept going, Jace leaning more and more on Maia’s shoulder and coughing every few minutes before he stumbled and Maia forced them to stop again.

“Maybe we set out too soon,” Maia says, looking around for a good spot to prop up Jace. 

Jace coughed, a dry hacking sound that made Maia wince in sympathy for his dry throat. “No it's fine, we can keep going,” Jace says, taking short shallow breathes. 

Maia raised an eyebrow at him. “You can barely speak,” Maia says, glaring at him. “And if you hadn’t been leaning so much of your weight on me you’d have hit the ground when you stumbled.”

“I tripped,” Jace says, leaning his head back on the tree he’d been propped up against. 

“On what? Air?” Maia asks, incredulous. “I know you’re a tough guy but you’re tired, you’re injured and we’ve been moving too fast.”

“You should have left me behind.”

“We had this conversation already. I don’t want to have it again it’s boring,” Maia says, leaning back against the tree across from Jace. “I know you have some sort of ridiculous hero deal but I wasn’t leaving you to either burn or suffocate back there.”

Jace sighs and then coughed again, face going grey from the effort. “You’d be back at the gate by now and you could have gotten reinforcements.”

Maia shook her head. “I would have had to take this same route trying to find a way around the fire. You keep forgetting that Luke and Clary were on the other side of the explosion.”

“What no, they were right behind us,” Jace says, making a face like he was trying to remember the details. 

“Yeah and they kept falling back. The explosion came from the left of us and spread behind us,” Maia says, pushing away from the tree to get as better look at Jace. “Do you remember the minutes before the explosion?”

Jace coughed and shook his head. “I don’t know. Everything’s been fuzzy since I came to. And-” He doesn’t finish, just pitches forward and throws up. Maia catches him before he falls over and lands face first. 

“Shit,” Maia mumbles. “Shit, shit. How long have you been nauseous?”

“A while,” Jace mumbled, dropping his forehead to Maia’s shoulder. “You have to leave me, I’m not going to make it to the stargate.”

“That’s not an option,” Maia says, propping Jace back up against the tree and starting to undo his tack vest.

“What are you doing?” Jace asks, frowning but not resisting as Maia started running her hands across his chest. “I’m not complaining but I’m really not up for it.”

“I’m checking your ribs jackass,” Maia says, glaring again. “Since you can’t be trusted to give a full assessment of your condition I have to do it for you.” She stops glaring when Jace hissed and tries to move away from her hands. 

“Okay definitely broken, probably worse than you assumed,” Maia says, drawing her hands back. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a concussion, too.” Maia frowns. “Give me your radio.”

Jace frowned but handed it over without complaint. 

Maia pulls her own radio off and opens the battery pack. “This probably won’t work,” Maia says, slipping the backup battery pack she’d started adding to her tack vest out of it’s pocket. “And when it doesn’t I’m going to slap Campbell but if your theory about the possible technology here is right,” Maia says, shrugging. 

Maia didn’t always pay attention when Earth people spit balled ridiculous workarounds for their technology, she could usually figure it out if it was close to the tech she remembered from home and she definitely remembered EMP’s from the last wraith invasion. “Okay, here goes nothing,” Maia says, turning on the radio. 

It sputtered to life a few seconds later with Captain Lightwood’s voice on the other end. “Captain,” Maia says, cutting him off. “We copy. We’re in need of immediate medical attention.”

“It’s not that bad,” Jace says, before starting another coughing fit and going pale. 

Captain Lightwood came back on the radio immediately. “Copy that. I can feel a general direction you’re in, can you give us any directions? We have the puddle jumper so we can get to you quickly.”

Maia rattled off the their coordinates, picturing their location based on their path to the right of the main road through the forest and forward towards the gate. Maia let her shoulders drop for a moment in relief before she centered herself and looked at Jace. “Alright, let’s get in an open space so they can pick us up. We’re going home.”

*  
Maia woke up several hours later in one of the uncomfortable infirmary chairs on Atlantis. Her neck hurt and her back was sore but she knew she was as safe as she could be on base. The overhead lights were dimmed and it was quiet, no doctors or patients talking so Maia knew it was late night Atlantis time.

“Hey,” Jace says, from the bed, voice rough from coughing. “Is there any water?” 

“Yeah,” Maia says, standing up and reaching for the cup and straw one of the nurses had left beside the bed. “Drink, slow,” Maia says, putting the straw to his lips. 

Jace drank for a few minutes before sinking back into the pillows. “Where is everybody?”

“Keller threw Clary and Luke out a couple of hours ago and Alec said he’d be back at six am to yell at you,” Maia says, setting the cup back on the side table and cocking a hip against the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I walked several miles as my lung started to collapse,” Jace says, with a smirk. “So you know, I’ve been better. What about you?”

Maia shrugs. “My back is sore but I’ve had worse. Probably shouldn’t have slept in that chair.”

Jace looks at her and frowns. “Why didn’t you go sleep in your room? I’m sure Keller tried to kick you out.”

“She did,” Maia says, with a laugh. “Apparently I’m intimidating,” Maia says, with a shrug. 

Jace laughs, voice still rough. “Only sometimes. Still, I know your bed is more comfortable than those chairs.”

“Yeah but it’s harder to make sure you’re okay from my room.”

Jace smiles and says, “Were you worried about me?”

“You stopped breathing in the puddle jumper on the way to the gate,” Maia says, voice gone flat. 

She doesn’t want to think about what would have happened if he’d have stopped breathing before they’d made contact with the rescue team from Atlantis. She’d thought she’d forgotten how to get that scared. 

“I don’t remember that,” Jace says, all humor draining from his face. 

Maia snorts and says, “I didn’t expect you would. It wasn’t a great moment for any of us.”

“I’m sorry,” Jace says, grabbing her hand. Maia let’s him lace their fingers together and doesn’t bother to pretend it’s not comforting, she’s just too worn out to fight with herself.

“For what?” Maia asks. 

“Scaring you,” Jace says. 

Maia sighs. “You did. Scared is not a feeling I like.”

“I’d promise to be less stubborn but we both know that would be a lie,” Jace says, with a smile.

Maia laughs. “That’s about as likely as me agreeing to not ignore orders when I think they’re stupid.” 

“So never going to happen,” Jace says. “I can try not to help anything trying to kill me at least?”

Maia nods, “I guess that’s acceptable. And I can go to that dinner with your family since they’ve got more experience with you being a pain.”

“Oh yeah?” Jace says, with a smile. “If I knew getting blown up would get you to agree I’d have done it earlier.”

Maia laughs. “You are so obnoxious.”

“You love it,” Jace says. “You love me, admit it.”

Maia laughs and kisses him. “Don’t push it, Wayland. You’re just okay.”


End file.
